Who wins? Who cares?

Is anyone besides me completely sick of competition TV shows? The whole genre started, I guess, with Survivor (which I have never watched). Then there's The Great Race, Dancing with the Stars, American Idol, Design Star, The Next Food Network Star, Chopped, Project Runway, The Fashion Show, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. They never end.

The ones on HGTV aggravate me the most. I turn on HGTV to get design inspiration and to do the house-voyeur thing - you know, you want to see what everyone else's taste is and what houses are out there for sale. I switched on the TV for distraction while I was working on "Stars over Martinique" today and Battle on the Block was on. That sent me scurrying to the other channels looking for "Law & Order" or "Cold Case", my admitted addictions. Anything but that silly HGTV show. First, I don't think doing something like renovating or decorating at breakneck speed against the clock is entertaining, or anything but ridiculous. Second, I'm enough of a perfectionist to wince when I see jobs done sloppily because of lack of time. And third, the fake 'drama' is stupid.

Thank goodness nobody has come up with "Quilt Against the Clock". Ready, set, sew!

Rest in peace, little television

My kitchen television quit working this morning. I was cutting out quilt blocks and watching "Law and Order", and pffffft. No picture. I wasted several minutes checking the cable box and fiddling with the television before I decided it was well and truly broken.

And I missed the end of the program. Now I don't know if the kid was a pathological killer or a poor teenager screwed up by psychiatric drugs. Rats. (I am positively addicted to "Law and Order". I never watched it on the network but now it's in syndication I'm hooked.)

But worst of all, now I have to go television shopping and try to find one small enough to fit in the corner on the kitchen cabinet. Not an easy task.

Little Zenith, why -- oh, why?